What if They Aired in Production Order?

[Big Daddy O'Reilly]

I know they do in some local markets, but I'm talking about what if the episodes were first originally aired in their production order? I know in some minor areas, it would make more sense (most notably, the events of "Comrades in Arms" obviously took place after "Patent 4077", though was aired before), but how about more specifically the season premieres and finales? A few of the seasons had different episodes produced at the beginning and ends of the seasons opposed to what was aired... according to production codes, "Rainbow Bridge" (3x02) was the first episode produced for Season Three, while "The General Flipped at Dawn" (3x01) was the eigth, I believe... somehow, I can easily see "Rainbow Bridge" being a decent season kicker, in fact, it's one of my favorites from Season Three... I think maybe perhaps it could do if chronologically, the two episodes were simply flipped, and make "Rainbow Bridge" S3E01 and "The General Flipped at Dawn" S3E02.

Then again, there are some areas where it actually wouldn't make sense that they first aired in production order, and Seasons Four and Five are the biggest examples of that: "Change of Command" (4x03) was the first episode produced of Season Four, in fact, it seems two other episodes were produced before B.J.'s introduction, and another episode was produced inbetween the two-parter, so that would have been extremely confusing if we were to see Potter arrives in camp while B.J. is already there, then a few episodes later, B.J. is arriving in camp and Potter hadn't been assigned there. Likewise, I think there were a handful of Season Five episodes that were produced after "Margaret's Marriage" (5x25), so that also would have been confusing to have Margaret and Penobscott marry and leave for their honeymoon one week, and then in the weeks to follow, Margaret's back in camp, and is still only engaged.

Season Six would have been interesting though, I think "Temporary Duty" (6x22) was the last episode produced for the season, and I think that would have made for a much more interesting, and maybe even more appropriate season finale as opposed to "Major Topper" (6x25), which seemed more like any other episode, whereas "Temporary Duty" mixed things up a bit by dismissing Hawkeye for most of the episode, and bringing in visitors from another MASH unit.

Those are just some of my thoughts anyway. As far as Season Seven goes, I know "A Night at Rosie's" (7x24) was the last one produced instead of "The Party" (7x26), but that's only because that episode was literally done at the last minute according to Ken Levine: since the network dismissed the idea of Radar's farewell being the season finale and holding the story over until the next season, he and David Isaacs then wrote the script for "A Night at Rosie's" over a weekend, and they began filming it promptly that following Monday.